Foreign
What to know about Trump’s blockade in the Strait of Hormuz
The United States says it is starting a blockade of all maritime traffic at Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz, ratcheting up tensions in the region after Iran and the United States failed to reach a peace deal over the weekend.
A central sticking point in the nations’ marathon negotiations in Islamabad on Saturday, April 11, was the United States demand to reopen the strait, a narrow waterway that has become Iran’s most effective tool in the joint war launched by the United States and Israel more than seven weeks ago.
The 100-mile-long waterway connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, bordered on one side by a swath of Iranian coastline. Before the war, roughly 20% of the world’s oil and natural gas supply passed through the narrow channel. But since Iran has effectively closed the passage in response to the joint U.S.-Israel strikes beginning on Feb. 28, shipping has been at a virtual standstill. Its closure has left hundreds of tankers in the Gulf unable to enter or leave through the strait. It has roiled global markets and led to a surge in global energy prices.
US to blockade Iranian ports, oil prices surge.
A U.S. official told USA TODAY on April 12 that the negotiations fell apart over multiple issues, including how to address Iran’s nuclear program and facilities, its support for Hamas and Hezbollah and demands by the United States that Iran reopen the strait and not impose tolls.
Several hours after the talks fell apart, President Donald Trump announced on social media early April 12 that the U.S. Navy would impose a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz.
Here is what to know.
Where is the US Navy implementing the blockade?
The parameters of the blockade have changed significantly since the president first announced it on April 12, from a complete lockdown of the strait to a more targeted operation focused on Iranian ports.
“Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump said in his first announcement on Truth Social.
President Donald Trump arrives at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 12, 2026.
In an interview with Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” about an hour after his social media posts, Trump called the operation a “complete blockade.” When asked what he was trying to accomplish, Trump said he was aiming to reopen the strait for all ships, calling it an “all in and all out.”
The U.S. Central Command later said that the blockade, which is slated to begin at 10 a.m. ET, would be more targeted.
The blockade will be “enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas,” U.S. Central Command said, including from “all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.”
More: US-Iran ceasefire hinges on Strait of Hormuz. Why is it so important?
In a note to seafarers seen by Reuters, U.S. Central Command said the blockade would apply to all vessel traffic regardless of their flag along the Iranian coastline in the Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea, east of the Strait of Hormuz.
The area amounts to roughly 21,000 square miles along the Iranian coastline, a space roughly 87% the size of West Virginia.
The note said any vessels departing the blockaded area would be subject to “interception, diversion, and capture,” but vessels passing through the strait to or from non-Iranian destinations would not be affected, Reuters reported. It also said that humanitarian shipments, including food, medical supplies and other essential goods, would be permitted within the blockade but would be subject to inspection.
Will other nations join in the blockade?
The president also said in the 30-minute Fox News interview over the weekend that “numerous countries” would be helping with the blockade, but did not specify which nations would assist and how. He suggested the United Kingdom could help with clearing mines Iran placed in the strait, though the country’s prime minister later stated his government would not assist in implementing the blockade.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on April 13 said in an interview with the BBC that his country was “not supporting” Trump’s threatened blockade, and that the United Kingdom is “not getting dragged into the war.”
He added that it’s vital that “we get the strait open and fully open,” and announced there would be a summit this week jointly with France to advance a plan .
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on April 13 said he supports Trump’s blockade plan for the strait, saying: “We, of course, support this aggressive stance, and we are coordinating with the United States all the time.”
Why is the US imposing a blockade?
The blockade is designed to increase economic pressure on Iran to open the strait and reach an agreement to end the conflict, several experts said.
Robin Brooks, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, has argued that a blockade exerts financial pressure on the regime dependent on oil exports and avoids more potential loss of life if the United States and Israel tried to seize Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export terminal.
“A blockade collapses Iran’s imports to zero because there’s no cash from oil exports to pay for anything. It sends Iran’s currency into a devaluation spiral and the economy into hyperinflation,” he said on X.
At the same time, he said, the strategy’s risks include rising oil prices and potential fallout in U.S. financial markets.
Karen Young, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, told USA TODAY that while a blockade would cause financial distress in Iran, that does not necessarily mean it will change the country’s negotiating positions as the strategy pushes up oil prices. It also might lengthen the time it takes to open the strait completely.
“Iran has long shown an ability to weather economic pressure, and sees little reason to alleviate the consequences for its citizens,” Young said.
James Stavridis, a retired U.S. admiral and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, told CNN the blockade would require one or two aircraft carriers, a dozen surface ships stationed off the ports and a couple dozen smaller boats in what would be a “resource-intensive” strategy.
While Iran could still respond by adding more mines to the strait or going after Gulf states oil infrastructure, Stavridis noted on social media that, “In recent days the ONLY people benefiting from Gulf transit were the Iranians.”
Global leaders respond as the U.S. blocks the Strait of Hormuz with Iran vowing retailation, sending oil prices higher and dropping markets shares.
“With a blockade…their economy will be choked…and the US and our allies are no worse off than we were after the Iranians started holding the Strait hostage,” he wrote.
Emory University law professor and former Navy lawyer Mark Nevitt flagged his April 13 analysis, highlighting that reopening a critical strait, which accounts for 11% of global maritime trade, won’t happen swiftly even if an agreement is reached. That’s partly because Iran mined the area.
“New reporting suggests that Iran mined the Strait haphazardly, failed to record mine locations, and lacks the capacity to conduct effective clearance operations,” he wrote. “Until those mines are found and removed, the Strait is practically closed.”
The Callisto tanker sits anchored as the traffic is down in the Strait of Hormuz, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Muscat, Oman, March 10, 2026.
How has Iran responded?
Iran has issued its own threats in response to the impending blockade, warning it would violate the tenuous two-week ceasefire that began on April 7, and indicating it could once again begin targeting the United States’ allies in the Gulf.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement to Iranian state media on April 12 that any military vessels attempting to approach the strait would be considered in violation of the two-week ceasefire and would be dealt with harshly and decisively.
Iranian military spokesperson Ebrahim Zolfaghari warned on April 13 that if Iran’s ports are threatened, no ports in the Gulf or the Gulf of Oman would remain secure. He added that any blockade of vessels in international waters would amount to “piracy,” according to Iranian state media.
Contributing: George Petras, USA TODAY.
This story has been updated
Source: USA TODAY.
Japan is the first country to have more than 100,000 centenarians and has one of the longest life expectancies in the world.
Humans are living longer and longer. Now Japan has broken a new record for longevity: more than 100,000 people in the country are centenarians—some 107,677 of them are at least 100 years old.
Japan has one of the highest life expectancies in the world. Researchers believe this national longevity is likely linked to low rates of obesity, healthy diets, widespread health screenings and affordable health care, which lead to lower mortality rates from heart disease and cancer.
“I am very happy that so many people have been able to stay active for so long,” said Japan’s health minister Kenichiro Ueno at a news conference announcing the milestone in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Japan is “exactly where you would expect to see this first,” says Jay Olshansky, an epidemiologist at the University of Illinois Chicago. But he expects more countries to follow as large birth cohorts hit the 100-year mark and medical advances continue.
“Most people at older ages now are living on manufactured time—time that was created for us by our physicians and by the public health community,” he says.
But more people living long lives isn’t all good news. Japan also has one of the lower birth rates in the world. And its lower fertility rates and smaller working-age population are squeezing public resources and making caring for its older populations more difficult.
Additionally, a long life can be “a potentially dangerous scenario unless it’s accompanied by good health,” Olshansky says.
Japan’s oldest known person, Fuyo Kumamato, is 114 years old. (The oldest living person in the world, Ethel Caterham in the U.K., is 117 years old.) Researchers around the world are studying supercentenarians, people older than age 110, in hopes of keeping more people healthy for longer.
“What’s really critical about this is quality of life,” Olshansky adds. “Just living longer should not be the primary goal of medicine and public health anymore. It should be health extension or health span.”
Scientific American
46-year-old Jens Spahn announced he and his husband had become parents earlier this week
German centre-right politician Jens Spahn has resigned as parliamentary group leader of the country’s governing coalition after being accused of hypocrisy over his use of a surrogate mother in the US to have a child.
Surrogacy is prohibited in Germany – a policy backed by his Christian Democrat party (CDU) and, several years ago, by Spahn himself – although raising a child born to a surrogate mother abroad is not.
He wrote in a statement on Saturday: “I have realised that my personal happiness – founding a family together with my husband and becoming a father – is not compatible with my political office.”
Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who leads the CDU, called his decision “right” and “inevitable”.
“Credibility is the highest asset in politics,” he wrote on social media, and said he would begin the process of appointing Spahn’s replacement.
The 46-year-old former health minister revealed earlier this week that he and his husband Daniel Funke had become parents, with their use of a surrogate abroad prompting criticism from politicians from several parties, including his own.
Announcing his resignation on Saturday, Spahn wrote: “The balancing act between my private decision to have a child through surrogacy and the understandable expectations placed on me as Chairman of our parliamentary group has become greater than I anticipated,” he added.
He also said the “increasing relentlessness in public discourse” had given him “deep pause for thought”.
“Despite all clarity and decisiveness regarding the issues, let us always remain human in our tone,” he wrote.
German media reported Alexander Hoffmann, head of the Christian Social Union parliamentary group, would take over Spahn’s duties until a successor was chosen.
Hoffmann said: “Jens Spahn’s decision deserves the utmost respect.”
The CDU signed a resolution reaffirming its support for a ban on surrogacy in February. As health minister in 2020, Spahn had rejected calls by the liberal FDP for the ban to be relaxed.
In 2015, he wrote that “as a gay man and a Christian I find it personally very hard to warm to the idea of a rented womb”.
Surrogacy in Germany is punishable with three years imprisonment or a fine, rendering surrogacy abroad an important option for many couples.
Italy bans couples from travelling abroad for surrogacy
Spahn is one of the most powerful figures in the CDU and has survived other political scandals – but this proved one too many for his party.
It came at a difficult time for the CDU, with Merz struggling in the opinion polls, the controversy risked hurting him further ahead of key regional elections this autumn.
In Saxony-Anhalt, the far-right AfD party could win an outright majority, marking the first time a far-right party has held power in a German state since World War Two.
Writing for Bavarian public broadcaster BR24, journalist Christian Wölfel remarked: “One of the most powerful elected representatives is flouting the very rights denied to childless couples in Germany.
“In doing so, Jens Spahn is, shortly before the state elections in the east, confirming precisely the narrative that fringe political groups are using to win votes.”
Others believe Merz may welcome Spahn’s departure from the political arena.
He has “made no secret of his ambitions to become chancellor”, journalist Eva Fischer reported in the newspaper Taz, and is an increasingly dangerous threat to Merz.
She wrote: “In politics, the rule is: if someone could pose a threat to you, it’s best to get rid of them. Now Merz still has the power to do that.”
Other EU countries including France, Spain and Italy also ban surrogacy, which involves a woman carrying a baby and giving birth on behalf of parents unable to have children themselves.
France’s top court, the Court of Cassation, ruled this month that babies born to a surrogate mother abroad should be legally recognised as their intended parents’ children.
Meanwhile, Italy made it illegal in 2024 for Italians to have a baby abroad through surrogacy, in a policy driven by Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government.
BBC
—Govt says items illegally exported to USA
South Africa has returned to its Constitutional Court in a renewed attempt to stop the auction in the United States of 29 personal items once belonging to Nelson Mandela, escalating a four-year legal battle over whether the memorabilia should be treated as private property or protected national heritage.
South Africa makes fresh bid to block $1.35 million auction of Nelson Mandela’s belongings after 4-year legal battle.
South Africa has approached its Constitutional Court to try to stop the US auction of 29 items once owned by Nelson Mandela.
The contested items include Mandela’s prison key, identity card, glasses, and shirts, spanning significant periods of his life.
Mandela’s daughter, Makaziwe Mandela, and a former prison warder own the items and have authorized the sale to fund a memorial garden.
South African authorities argue the items should be protected under national heritage laws.
The South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) and the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture argue that the objects form part of South Africa’s national heritage and were exported without the required permission.
The latest legal challenge follows earlier rulings by South African courts that cleared the way for the auction.
The collection includes Mandela’s identity card, shirts, writings, hearing aids, glasses and a key to his prison cell on Robben Island, where he spent 18 of his 27 years in prison.
The items therefore span some of the most significant periods of Mandela’s life, from his imprisonment under apartheid to his emergence as South Africa’s first democratically elected president.
The question is, are these Mandela family property or national heritage?
The objects are not all owned by the South African state.
According to the BBC, the items in the collection belong to Mandela’s eldest daughter, Makaziwe Mandela, and Christo Brand, a former Robben Island prison warder who developed a close relationship with Mandela during his incarceration.
South African authorities argue the items should be protected under national heritage laws.
Makaziwe authorised the proposed sale, with proceeds intended to finance a memorial garden near her father’s grave in Qunu, in South Africa’s Eastern Cape.
Reports confirm that the sale was authorised by Mandela’s eldest daughter to raise funds for the memorial project.
The dispute began after SAHRA discovered the potential auction in a British newspaper report in late 2021. The report said the collection could include Mandela’s prison key, which was expected to fetch more than £1 million, or about $1.35 million at the time, according to the BBC.
New York-based auction house Guernsey’s subsequently announced plans for the sale. SAHRA challenged the auction, arguing that the items could not legally be exported because of their cultural and historical significance. The auction was suspended while the legal dispute moved through South Africa’s courts.
The legal argument rests partly on South Africa’s National Heritage Resources Act, which allows objects to receive heritage protection because of their association with political processes, events, figures and leaders in the country.
The judgement
But a Pretoria High Court judgment raised questions about how broadly that definition could be applied.
The contested items include Mandela’s prison key, identity card, glasses, and shirts, spanning significant periods of his life.
Writing in The Conversation, Dr Duane Jethro, a senior lecturer in African Studies, noted that the court found SAHRA’s proposed interpretation potentially so broad that almost anything Mandela had touched or been associated with could theoretically qualify as a heritage object.
The court questioned why ordinary items associated with Mandela should automatically receive heritage protection while other objects, including the large number of Springbok rugby jerseys and political clothing Mandela signed during his public life, would not necessarily receive the same status.
It also indicated that objects would need to possess an extraordinary quality or a high degree of national significance to qualify for registration as heritage objects.
That reasoning is particularly significant because many of the disputed objects are ordinary personal possessions rather than unique state artefacts. Items such as Mandela’s reading glasses and hearing aids may have enormous symbolic value because they belonged to him, but the court was required to determine whether that association alone was enough to give them legal heritage status.
Meanwhile, Dr Nelson Mandela’s home has been abandoned and deteriorating.
The courts have consequently been asked to navigate a difficult line between the rights of private owners to dispose of inherited possessions and the state’s responsibility to preserve objects that embody South Africa’s political history.
The latest Constitutional Court application comes after the auction was first announced in 2021 and subsequent court proceedings cleared the sale. The government is now making another attempt to prevent the 29 objects from being auctioned in the United States.
For South Africa, the case is about more than the financial value of Mandela memorabilia. It raises a broader question over who controls the physical legacy of one of Africa’s most consequential political figures — his family, private collectors or the state on behalf of the public.
Mandela, who became South Africa’s first democratic president in 1994, died in 2013 at the age of 95. The Constitutional Court’s latest intervention could determine whether these personal objects remain available for private sale or become protected as part of the country’s national heritage.
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